March 27, 2009 - Bulgarian students are more often drunk and smoke a lot more than the majority of their European fellows in other countries. The European School and Research Project On Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) 2007 survey report was presented on late Thursday, 3/26/2009. The main purpose of ESPAD is to collect comparable data on substance use among 15-16 year old European students in order to monitor trend within as well as between countries. The 2007 ESPAD Report..Smoking is an area for concern as 40 percent of Bulgarian students (some examples: Austria 45 percent, Latvia 41 percent, Czech Republic 41 percent, Armenia 7 percent) had smoked within a 30 day period before the survey, which is way above the European average. The survey showed that 24 percent of students in Bulgaria have tried illegal drugs with the prevalence rates for cannabis (22 percent) and other drugs (9 percent) both being close to the European average.

Alcohol abuse is also prevalent amongst Bulgarian youths with 45 percent of school students reporting being drunk at least once a year, which is again above the EU average.

March 26, 2009 - Teton District Board of Health unanimously approved a countywide smoking ban (Teton District Smokefree Air Rule of 2009). The rule is designed to “protect the public health and welfare by prohibiting smoking in public places and places of employment.” It applies to all public areas, including bars, restaurants, buildings used by the general public, and common areas of hotels, motels and sports arenas.

Among exemptions are private residences, except when childcare is involved, and hotel and motel rooms rented to guests. Private clubs also are excluded, except when the public is invited for an event. The board also included a caveat for tobacco shops such as Tobacco Row.A person or business owner violating the rule faces a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $750 or jail time. The rule takes affect 60 days from Tuesday – the end of May 2009.

Wyoming: On February 14, 2009, the Wyoming House of Representatives defeated a statewide ban on smoking by preventing the bill from being introduced. Two-thirds of Wyoming voters support a ban on smoking in public places, including restaurants and bars, according to a new statewide poll.

March 26, 2009 - The City of Norfolk, Virginia is cracking down on illegal cigarette sales that officials say are costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

The city created a task force to inspect convenience stores and tobacco shops selling the unstamped products.

Illegal cigarette sales undermines the potential effectiveness of higher tobacco taxes reducing government revenues and encouraging adults to continue smoke and children (kids) to start smoking cigarettes. The availability of low-cost (cheap)illegal cigarettes has particular implications for vulnerable populations such as young people and the economically disadvantaged.The effort began last year and 11 stores have been busted in the last month and a half. Not only were illegal cigarettes found, so was drug paraphernalia crack pipes, baggies, scales and code violations, city officials said. One shop owner also is accused of selling Viagra and bootleg CDs. The effort has intensified as the city looks for ways to cut its $35 million budget shortfall, officials say. Norfolk’s commissioner of the revenue says she has seen a 34% decline in the number of cigarette stamps sold to dealers. She believes over the course of the fiscal year the city's lost $750,000.

The task force is made up of city workers, members of the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officials say Norfolk is the only city in Virginia with this kind of task force.

March 26, 2009 - In 2000, then federal health minister Michael Wooldridge convinced the three major tobacco companies to voluntarily disclose their cigarette ingredients to allow the government to post the information online. (Australian Cigarette Ingredient Disclosure.

Late last year, the federal Department of Health and Ageing engaged the Ipsos-Eureka Social Research Institute to assess the public health value of disclosing cigarette ingredients and emissions data, as proposed by some health groups.

They found the agreement negotiated by Dr. Wooldridge was unlikely to have directly promoted or protected the health of Australians. "In research with smokers, non-smokers, and tobacco control stakeholders, the currently disclosed emissions and ingredient information was seen to be incomprehensible, uninteresting, incomplete and difficult to access," the January 2009 report states. "Most members of the public had not and did not intend to access the information (and) providing members of the public with the disclosed information did not seem to discourage them from smoking."

Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing Jan McLucas yesterday (March 25, 2009) said the Government would await a report from the National Preventative Health Taskforce before taking any further action on smoking.

The ordinance was toned down from Kanagawa Gov Shigefumi Matsuzawa’s original call for a total ban on smoking in public places, exempting small restaurants and hotels and suspending penalties for some violators for one year. The ordinance will come into force in April 2010. The ordinance classifies public facilities into two categories. One category includes schools, gymnasiums and outdoor sports arenas, hospitals and clinics, theaters, horse and cycle racetracks, department stores and shopping centers, central and local government offices, public transportation facilities such as railway stations and bus terminals, financial institutions, museums and social welfare facilities.

The second category covers restaurants and bars, hotels and ryokan inns, game halls including pachinko parlors, amusement arcades and karaoke boxes, and service facilities such as barber shops and beauty parlors.

The ordinance imposes a smoking ban on facilities in the first category and requires those in the second category to choose between becoming nonsmoking or creating separate smoking areas. Among facilities in the second category, restaurants and bars with floor spaces of up to 100 square meters, and hotels, ryokan inns and game halls with floor spaces of up to 700 square meters are exempt from the ordinance. The measure only requires operators of such small-scale facilities to ‘‘make efforts’’ to establish separate smoking and nonsmoking areas.

For violators, the ordinance sets fines of 20,000 yen ($203) for facility operators and 2,000 yen ($20.30) for smokers. Penalties will be imposed on first-category facilities immediately after the ordinance comes into force and for second-category places a year later.

In 2007 the overall rate of smokers in Japan slid to a new record of 26 percent of the adult population from 26.3 percent a year ago and has steadily dropped since 1996. The rate among Japanese men declined to 40.2 percent from 41.3 percent a year ago, but the rate among women edged up to 12.7 percent from 12.4 percent. (Japan's smoking rate declines to record low in 2007Associated Press - International Herald Tribune, 10/17/2007)

March 25, 2009 - Leaders in both houses of the General Assembly are backing a tax change on a product known as moist snuff that is being pushed by tobacco giant Philip Morris - and opposed by an unusual coalition of other tobacco interests (such as R.J. Reynolds and health advocates.

The measure would change the way the tins of moist snuff are taxed, from a 15 percent levy on the package's wholesale price to a 75 cent tax per ounce of tobacco. The state health department says that adjustment would benefit producers of higher-priced or "premium" snuff such as Skoal, while increasing the tax on "value" brands such as Grizzly, manufactured by Conwood Co., a subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc.

March 25, 2009 - House lawmakers yesterday voted down a bill that would ban adults from smoking cigarettes in cars in which children are riding. The bill failed on a narrow vote of 184-167. (The legislation was decided on a "division" vote, meaning that it's impossible to know how any one lawmaker voted or to see the partisan breakdown on the bill.)

The debate on the smoking-in-the-car bill pitted medical evidence on the dangers of secondhand smoke against philosophical questions about the rights of individuals to partake in legal activities and practical concerns about how police officers would enforce such a law.

Representative Mary Griffin of Windham, the sponsor said she took issue with the idea that the bill represented "undue intrusion into parental privacy." "On the contrary, there is a long-established legal prohibition against endangering the welfare of a child."

She reeled off a list of ailments associated with inhaling cigarette smoke, such as asthma and cancer, and she cited a 2006 Harvard School of Public Health study that found cigarettes smoked in cars can generate hazardous levels of smoke in only a few minutes. She said that other states, including Arkansas and Louisiana, have banned smoking in cars with young children. Adults, Griffin said, get to make lifestyle choices, but children don't. "Our infants must be given the right to survive," she said.

March 25, 2009 - The Ontario Korean Businessman's Association (OKBA -represents 2,500 business owners in Ontario) is calling on the Federal Government to move immediately to crack down on the illegal cigarette trade. Jong Sil (John) Yoon, OKBA President - "Many of our stores are seeing reductions of 50% or more in their business because of the illegal trade. Consumers who used to come in to buy cigarettes would usually pick up other items at the same time. We are losing those sales because those consumers are now buying their cigarettes in a back alley or from the trunk of a car." Members of the OKBA were in Ottawa for meetings with Members of Parliament to discuss their concerns about the impact of the illegal trade on the future of their business.Illegal cigarettes are sold for as little as $5-6 for 200, whereas the same number of legal cigarettes costs upwards of $70, putting law abiding business owners at a severe competitive disadvantage. "Purchases of illegal tobacco in Ontario have grown from 23% of the market in 2006, to 32% in 2007, to almost 50% today. How much market share can organized crime control before someone takes notice?" asked Yoon.

The OKBA expressed frustration that the only government action on tobacco sales involves ever greater restrictions on the sale of legal tobacco products in their stores. Illegal cigarettes are sold for as little as $5-6 for 200, whereas the same number of legal cigarettes costs upwards of $70, putting law abiding business owners at a severe competitive disadvantage.

"Purchases of illegal tobacco in Ontario have grown from 23% of the market in 2006, to 32% in 2007, to almost 50% today. How much market share can organized crime control before someone takes notice?" asked Yoon.

The OKBA expressed frustration that the only government action on tobacco sales involves ever greater restrictions on the sale of legal tobacco products in their stores. "We abide by all the rules and regulations, whether they deal with advertising, display bans, or tax collection. We do so at a significant cost that comes directly out of our bottom line, and in some cases, involves a redesign of our stores. We absorb these costs because it is the right thing to do, but wonder why the government imposes these additional costs on our operations while illegal product flows into our communities without any regulatory oversight or taxation," stated Yoon.

Imperial Tobacco Canada believes that if Ontario moves forward with a lawsuit, it will take years to resolve and will cost Ontario taxpayers millions of dollars. A similar action in British Columbia has cost BC tens of millions of dollars and it is still not over.

March 25, 2009 -Lorillard Tobacco Co. alleges in a lawsuit filed in a Richmond, Va., (in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia) after allegedly discovering that S&M Brands Inc. (based in Keysville, Va.) "formulated and implemented a plan and scheme" to use Lorillard's Newport marks to advertise and promote its Bailey's menthol cigarettes.The suit says these acts likely will cause irreparable injury to Lorillard's goodwill and reputation. Specifically, Lorillard alleges that S&M used its Newport font and color schemes in its advertising for Bailey's. The complaint alleges trademark infringement, counterfeiting and unfair competition. Lorillard, Greensboro, N.C.-based, seeks an order enjoining defendant S&M Brands Inc. from using the marks. It also wants compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees and costs, and disgorgement of S&M's profits.

Newport cigarettes, which Lorillard introduced in 1956, have become the nation's leading brand of menthol cigarettes and the second-best-selling cigarette brand overall, according to the lawsuit.

S&M is attempting to "trade off the resounding consumer goodwill of the Newport marks and Lorillard's Newport brand products," the complaint says. Lorillard says S&M's actions could cause smokers to look less favorably on the Newport marks and Newport brand cigarettes because the marks are being used to sell a "lower quality product." "Consumers dissatisfied with [S&M]'s Bailey's cigarettes may then avoid Newport brand cigarettes," the suit says.

Lorillard maintains that S&M's (Steve and Mac Bailey - father and son) actions were deliberate, intentional and in bad faith.

March 24, 2009 - Incident heart failure before 50 years of age is substantially more common among blacks than among whites. Blacks tend to develop heart failure 20 years earlier than whites, a long-running study shows.

Amongst blacks who were current smokers 80.4% used menthol cigarettes in the past month in 2005-2006. (National Survey on Drug Use and Health Cigarette Use Amongst Blacks 2005-2006) - nearly one-fourth of blacks aged 12 or older were current smokers (i.e. - used cigarettes in the past month)

March 24, 2009 - New Jersey Senator Frank R. Lautenberg is asking the government to prevent the sale of so-called "electronic cigarettes" until more is known about them.

E-cigarettes are marketed as a healthier alternative to smoking and as a way to kick the habit. They are smokeless and battery-powered, releasing a nicotine vapor into the lungs. Senator Lautenberg wrote the FDA Monday (3/23/2009) warning that there have been no clinical studies verifying such claims or assessing their long-term health effects.Approval of e-cigarettes by the FDA is needed to justify its efficacy and safety prior to selling the product in the United States. New products containing nicotine have been pushed to the marketplace in recent months without the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Already with the growing nationwide push to ban indoor smoking, some e-cigarette manufacturers have been selling their product as legal to use in restaurants, bars, shopping malls and airplanes. Lautenberg: "I believe the FDA must take immediate action to take these products off the market" until they can be tested."

March 24, 2009 - Since 1977, the state's tax has stayed at 7 cents per pack. That's 10 cents less than the next lowest state (Missouri) and $2.68 per pack less than the state with the highest tax (New York). Considering that the average tax nationwide is $1.21, buying cigarettes in South Carolina and trucking them to another state can be very lucrative.There are two ways smugglers operate, said Earl Woodham, spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in North and South Carolina. Smugglers buy lots of cigarettes at discount stores, usually in North or South Carolina which do not place stamps on packs making them untraceable. They take the cigarettes to places like New York City where smokers not only pay $2.75 per pack in taxes, but an additional $1.50 in taxes from the city for a total of $4.25 per pack. And that doesn't include the federal taxes and the cost of the cigarettes.

The other way smugglers operate is to steal trailer loads of cigarettes and take them to higher taxing states, he said. There are estimates that smugglers can make a $1 million from a tractor trailer load of stolen cigarettes.

Woodham said the smuggling problems won't change even if South Carolina adds a proposed 50 cent per pack tax. The difference is still so great that the state would need to raise it to $4 per pack to stop the black market trade to New York.

March 24, 2009 - Smokers have all but stopped purchasing cigarettes by the carton in Rogers, Ark., retailers told The Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Instead, they buy packs of cigarettes in Rogers with which to get by until they can drive to Missouri, 25 miles north, where cigarettes are less expensive, by as much as $10 per carton. Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - Arkansas governor signs tobacco tax increase.. Wednesday, February 18, 2009. On March 1, Arkansas also raised the tax on other tobacco products by 36% on the selling price, up from 32%, for a total rate of 68%.

Vicky Rasnick, owner of a Jiffy Kwick convenience store in Rogers, said her cigarette sales are down about 50% so far in March. "It's awful," she told the newspaper. "Our carton sales are almost none. I've been here 22 years, and this is the worst I've seen it. This month is the single biggest hit we've ever had."

The cost of a carton of cigarettes has jumped by about $10, if not more, so far in March, said the report. Arkansas implemented a new $5.60 per carton tax on March 1, after House Bill 1204 was passed by the Legislature on February 12 and became Act 180. Adding to the burden, major cigarette manufacturers are raising prices at the wholesale level. Then federal government's new $6.17 per carton excise tax goes into effect on April 1, 2009.

Prices per carton at the Jiffy Kwick ranged from $38.99 for Sonoma to $50.49 for Marlboro, before sales taxes, the report added.

Ismail and Jodi Qasem plan to close their Balila Smoke Shop at 2500 N. 17th St. in Rogers at the end of the month. They have owned the shop since August. "I'm going to go bankrupt," Jodi Qasem told the paper. "This is our life savings right here. We were doing fine. Then it just went boom. The manufacturers started raising all the prices."

On March 9, Phillip Morris USA raised the price of Marlboro, its most popular brand, and eight other brands by $7.10 per carton. That's on top of a 90 cent per carton increase last month, bringing the price for a carton of Marlboros to more than $50 in northwestern Arkansas. Phillip Morris increased the price on 10 other brands, including Merit and Saratoga, by $8.07 per carton March 9. That move came after a $1.80 per carton increase February 9 on those 10 brands.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which makes Camel and Kool cigarettes, raised its carton prices March 16. The increases vary from a minimum of $4.10 per carton for some brands to $7.80 for others.

Missouri has the second-lowest state tax on cigarettes in the country, the report said. It charges $1.70 per carton in state taxes, compared with $11.50 per carton in Arkansas, which is 60 cents below the national average. Theoretically, that should make the average carton of cigarettes about $10 cheaper in Missouri.

We have no problem with inveterate tobacco smokers (smokers who are either unable or unwilling to quit) from using smokeless tobacco products. But it is impossible to limit distribution to only this group of individuals. Our children our future leader will be the ones that will suffer resulting in a life of being totally dependent on nicotine never able to achieve their full potential. You can see the way tobacco companies such as as RJR are promoting and distributing these products they are not being selective on how this is done.

Columbus is a test market for the product—dissolvable tobacco—little orbs, sticks and tiny pouches that dissolve in your mouth. The new product that’s advertised as cold, fresh and refreshing sounds like a soft drink or gum. But, it’s not gum and doctors think what’s in it could kill you.

The ad says you pop it under your lip, wait for the tingle and enjoy the taste for 30 minutes. There’s no smoke or cigarette, but plenty of nicotine. Take a look is it a Camel ORBs or Tic Tacs - both are flavored, look like candy and have attractive packaging. “The brain doesn’t know if it’s a cigarette or a lozenge or a strip you’re getting the nicotine from. You addict the exact same way,“ said Dr. Robert Crane, former chairman of Smoke Free Ohio. “Do you think big tobacco is trying to create a new generation of addicts?“ NBC 4‘s Colleen Marshall asked. “They’ve been trying to create generations of addicts successfully for the last hundred years and we have not been able to stop them,“ Crane said. But the tobacco companies will tell you the new products are alternatives to cigarettes and for smokers who can no longer light up in public, they offer relief.

David Howard, spokesman for RJ Reynolds tobacco company: These are marketed to adult tobacco consumers—an informed decision without bothering others, there is no second hand smoke, there’s no spitting and there’s no litter.“

“They may be safer for adult smokers. It melts in your mouth and not in your lungs. However, for kids, this is a much more dangerous first hook into nicotine and therein lies the rub,“ Crane said. Crane also said kids are more vulnerable than ever. Because the administration of Gov. Ted Strickland redirected the $230 million anti-tobacco fund to provide state budget relief.

But, state health officials said they do have anti-smoking programs. “We have a number of efforts. We have our quit line, many grants to hospitals through our community grant program and also do enforcement of smoke free Ohio,“ said Dr. Alvin Jackson, director of the Ohio Department of Health.

But, will it be enough to combat the campaign that includes a massive free handout of the new smoke free tobacco products? “Every time we find a way to stop them in one arena, they go around,“ Jackson said.

The tax losses from the sales by the eight businesses named in the lawsuit alone amount to $195 million for the City and an additional $525 million for the StatThe cigarettes are sold in the City, not only giving rise to the tax losses described above but injuring legitimate businesses and undercutting smoking prevention programs.

The ruling was announced by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Finance Commissioner Martha Stark and Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo Monday in the City’s case against cigarette dealers located on a Long Island Indian reservation that serves as a major source of bootlegged cigarettes into New York City.

Under the Burr-Hagan bill, a new agency would restrict some advertising and require a list of ingredients on cigarette and smokeless tobacco packaging. It would not restrict the products' content. The new agency envisioned by Burr and Hagan would cost about $100 million a year, far less than the hundreds of millions a year that would eventually go to the FDA to regulate tobacco under the Waxman bill. Both versions impose fees on tobacco companies to pay for the regulation.

Tobacco groups and employees have given $355,000 in campaign contributions to Burr since he first got elected to Congress in 1995, election records shows. That's second only to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, from tobacco-growing Kentucky, who has accepted $390,000 from the industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Burr's top overall contributor, with $194,000 in donations, is R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and its parent company, which is based in the senator's hometown, Winston-Salem. (Burr key tobacco funds recipient by Lisa Zagaroli, Charlotte Observer, 3/22/2009.) Kay Hagan's is from nearby Greensboro, NC - she received $19,450 from tobacco contributors in 2008. She has stopped short of saying she would filibuster FDA regulation.

March 23, 2009 - They may look like mints but they’re loaded with nicotine. They’re called Orbs, the first dissolvable tobacco product introduced by a major tobacco company, R.J. Reynolds. The tablets hit the Portland market in January, the same month the city became smoke free in restaurants and bars.

But Reynolds denies marketing to kids, saying Orbs are meant for adults. The products are marked with warnings, it may cause mouth cancer and it’s not a safe alternative to cigarettes. While the products may be less harmful because they are smoke-free, they still contain nicotine and can be addictive, no matter what your age.

Comments regarding this article: *-Um I would just like to say, I tried one of these hyped up mints. They are the nastiest thing I have EVER tried, could not have been in mouth 3 seconds. **-This is an obvious attempt to set the hook at a young age so RJ Reynolds has another generation of addicts to fill their coffers and personally it pisses me off.

Lorillard Inc could be a takeover target, perhaps at a "sizable" premium to its current share price, according to the latest issue of Barron's. Possible Tobacco Mergers/Acquisitions Involving Lorillard.. - March 17, 2009.
There lately has been talk that Reynolds (RAI.N), maker of the Camel (a growth brand - R.J. Reynolds focuses its investment in Camel and Pall Mall to accelerate the brands' market-share growth and to drive the brands for long-term, accelerated growth and profit.), Winston and Kool brands (both are support brands - R.J. Reynolds will put limited marketing support behind these brands and focus on balancing the brands' scale and long-term profit.), might buy Lorillard for a sizable premium above the recent share price of $61," Barron's reports in its March 23 issue. It said Reynolds and Lorillard declined to comment.

Barron's also reports that, "If Lorillard does go on the block, there could a bidding war that includes Reynolds, Britain's Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco and perhaps even Philip Morris International."

The article said that even if Lorillard is not a takeover target, its shares may be undervalued. "Lorillard has the best developed-market tobacco business in the world," David Adelman, the cigarette analyst at Morgan Stanley, was quoted as saying.

Lorillard cannot do what some competitors have done and focus on overseas for growth. In 1977 Lorillard sold the rights for international sales of its cigarette brands to British American Tobacco (BAT). (TobaccoWatch.org)

Increases are also under consideration in other tobacco-growing states like North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. With estimated state budget shortfalls nearing $50 billion, opponents of smoking see an opportunity to make headway with the most reluctant lawmakers.

States whose cigarette taxes are already high are also considering increases. In Oregon, now at $1.18 a pack, Gov. Theodore R. Kulongoski has proposed a 60-cent increase. In New Jersey, Gov. Jon Corzine is asking the Legislature for a 12.5-cent increase over the current $2.58. New York has the highest state tax on cigarettes, $2.75 a pack.

A 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes reduces consumption by 3 percent to 5 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and deters young people from picking up the smoking habit.